Underneath the Red Trees

CHAPTER 52: DARK TIMES, GOOD TIMES

Touma immediately tried to pull away, but the fist clamped down on his wrist. The hand was pale with long, black fingernails that dug into his skin. The veins sticking out from the skin had a sickly greyish colour.

"Let go," Touma tried. His voice was panicked.

The man was still staring him down with eyes as wide as baseballs.

He slammed a palm against his own chest. The sound was so hard that it made Touma wince. "Don't you recognise..." he croaked, "it... is me... Nao... zu... mi."

Touma gaped at him. He had never seen this man before.

Touma slowly shook his head. "I..." he stuttered. His voice would not quite come out. "I don't know you." Touma couldn't explain the fear that had crept into his heart. The man looked weak and malnourished, homeless even. Touma could beat him if he tried. Why was he so strong?

He heard a crunch. Was this guy grinding his teeth?

He still would not loosen his grip. "Hey," Touma tried, "Let go of me."

Instead, the grip tightened. "NO!" he screamed, "no no no no no no no." He dragged Touma closer. "Yuuki... you have to remember!"

"Who is that?" Touma looked around desperately but there was no one who could help him. The street was desolate. "I don't know anyone named Yuuki."

Naozumi's grip on his arm tightened again. It was starting to hurt, badly. What kind of strength was this?

"You have to remember!" he shouted, "You have to! You have to! You have to!" Touma shook his head. Was he insane.

"What exactly do you want to say to this Yuuki?" Touma tried. He was scared. And reasoning with his assailant wasn't working. He had to try a different tactic.

Naozumi's eyes relaxed slightly. Touma did not know what was going on inside that brain.

Crack! His knees hit the ground, loudly. He was still clutching Touma's wrist. He took hold of the other. Pressing his forehead to Touma's knuckles, he sobbed out two words: "Forgive me!" The man's shoulders shook, like he was about to cry but no tears ever came. "I beg for your forgiveness!"

He finally released Touma's hands, but he started kowtowing in front of Touma. He slammed his head against the ground over and over and over again. "Everything... I did to you... I do not deserve... forgiveness... but I am lowly. I have repented... my sins... for so many years. I hope you... will give me... even the slightest... peace... by hearing... this apology." The slamming of his forehead on the ground became louder. "Everything we..." Finally, he raised his head. The skin had been ripped but there was no blood. "... everything the Akano... family did to... you. We committed the... greatest... sins against... you. In life... and in death..."

He kept babbling about how guilty he felt, but it fell on deaf ears.

It was like something old and closed off had suddenly cracked in Touma's mind. Split open. A giant headache fractured his brain. He had to take hold of his head. There was something... a memory he did not recognise.

The creature wrapped around him... it felt like a mother's embrace... protecting him...

He bent over. His head was killing him. What was this...?

Something came rushing up his throat. Touma gagged. He caught sight of it.

Red.

So much red.

The blood dripped down the sides of his palm, staining the pavement drop by drop. He stared at it blankly, as if the blood he had just coughed was the same as a small papercut. His lips were stained with blood.